Rheumatology Fellowship Program

The University of Louisville Division of Rheumatology is a fully accredited, two-year training program that seeks to develop physicians to prepare them for a career in clinical rheumatology, first providing excellent clinical care for individual patients and then, in the second year focusing particularly upon management of panels of patients.

The focus upon panels of patients and reporting and improving their outcomes, is intended to facilitate full participation in the leadership of accountable care organizations. The rheumatology fellowship program trains rheumatologists to be successful in all fields, as academic clinician educators, in private practice, or as physician-scientists after additional training. We focus on Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) core competencies to provide excellent patient care as the sine qua non upon which the remainder of an individual fellow’s program is built.

GOALS

The two central goals of this program therefore are:

To provide the opportunity for mastery of disciplines, basic and clinical, which play roles in the improvement in outcome for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and the other immune mediated inflammatory illnesses.

To provide the broadest possible exposure to other aspects of rheumatology in preparation for both clinical practice and further research training.

In the curriculum an additional, third, instrumental goal serving the preceding two main goals for each fellow is that he or she will become the most sophisticated reader of clinical literature possible.

Achievement of this third goal is equally important and valuable for those destined for predominant roles as clinical teachers (40% of the program's graduates), scientists/clinical researchers (10%), or pure clinicians (50%).

Attainment of this third goal is highly dependent upon the conference curriculum of five (5) conferences per week, and upon a critical mass of peer relationships.

FACULTY

Our faculty provide individual mentoring for continued growth of internal medicine skills, development of cognitive/procedural skills including ultrasound guidance and diagnosis.

Clinical/bench research efforts of faculty collaborators currently focus upon the areas of EMR decision support software; lupus biomarkers and clinometrics; and modifiable risk factors and interventions to ameliorate dropout rates in adolescent transition to adult care.

There are three (3) core clinical adult rheumatology faculty, one (1) emeritus professor and former division chief with clinical and teaching responsibilities, two (2) additional pediatric rheumatology faculty, one (1) allergist/immunologist with teaching responsibility, and an MPH research advisor within the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences.

The pediatric rheumatology division contributes 10% of the adult program content.

We welcome your interest in our program, and encourage you to contact us if you need more information to make your choice of fellowship program. Visiting rotations for Internal Medicine residents from other programs are welcome.